Vault Hunter
Borderlands 4
Later tonight, Borderlands 4 is doing a surprise appearance at the Tokyo Game Show, which because of time difference, won’t be live in the East Coast until about 10:30 PM tonight. It’s pretty surprising, given that Borderlands 4 was only released two weeks ago, and now it’s already showing off DLC that will bring us a new Vault Hunter next year.
The tease, so far, is that this new Vault Hunter is going to be channeling Gambit. Or rather, Randy Pitchford, more likely.
The tweet says that Borderlands will “give a sneak peek at our hand,” and there are a pair of cards seemingly stuck in sand (zooming in, there are skulls on them). The idea would be that this is a card-based or card-slinging Vault Hunter.
Why is this funny? Because Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford is notorious for absolutely loving magic, and has even done card tricks on stage before. He tweets about magic frequently (in between giving out tech advice) and went so far as to make a pair of bosses called “Pain and Terror,” where Pain is actually voiced by real-life magician Penn Jilette. Terror is a reference to the silent Teller, and the character’s mouth is stitched up. This new hero is going to be presented by Randy himself. No word on if a card trick will be involved.
I’m not saying this is bad, but it is kind of funny. I don’t expect this Vault Hunter to be lame or anything (I mean, Gambit is my favorite X-Man), and we already have a look at his silhouette as per the original Gearbox Borderlands 4 roadmap. He’s got a cool hat and apparently a lot of feathers. I assume on his clothes, I don’t imagine he’s a bird man.
It does seem pretty unusual to preview a DLC Vault Hunter two weeks after release and what appears to be at least 3-4 months before it arrives. We have four other content updates before he would arrive (err, I guess I’m assuming it’s a he from that silhouette), which include two free content events and two paid Bounty Packs. The DLC Story Pack includes the Vault Hunter, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, is also paid.
The idea of adding DLC Vault Hunters at all is a change from Borderlands 3, where Gearbox said they would rather expand on existing Vault Hunters with new trees and skills than force players to start over with new characters. While I do think players liked the beefed-up Vault Hunters by the end, the consensus definitely seemed to be they would prefer DLC Vault Hunters, as that already produced classic ones like Gaige and Krieg. I don’t know who Randy-inspired Mr. or Mrs. Feathered Card Slinger is, but hopefully they can become a new classic character as well.
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